09 Jan, 2009, Val wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
I've been playing on MUD's for several years and built on a few of them, but I've gotten to a point where I get tired of the MUD's I play going inactive, either due to the staff not doing anything anymore, or the playerbase just getting bored and leaving, or a combination of the two.

I already have an idea in mind for a MUD with a unique storyline, medieval-fantasy-ish, but also with roots in realism and science.

The problem is that I have absolutely no idea how to code and trying to learn is proving quite difficult, especially with there being so much jargon to understand.

It would be cool if someone would like to join as a staff member in helping me set up and code such a MUD, and could be involved in the storyline as well if they wanted, as some elements, one race in particular would need to be played by staff to facilitate the roleplay of regular players, at some point.

I'm not looking for a /really/ complex MUD, but actual items, an economy, a turn-based combat system, emote-style roleplay and a pleasant-looking output would all be required to provide a good setting for what would be a roleplay enforced or encouraged MUD.

I'm not interested in hack and slash games or anything remotely like them, but the storybook type games where player-characters have skills and stats that affect how well they can fight, etc, without actually restricting them too much and strangling plots.

I figure this is probably a long shot, but let me know if you're interested or even if you have any advice you want to offer.

Currently I don't have a chosen codebase (would probably have to rip the guts out of most of the ones already out there, to make them how I wanted, anyway,) so I don't have a game to log in to yet.

-Val
09 Jan, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
I would suggest picking up a copy of TeensyMud, Socketmud or Rocketmud and familiarizing yourself with the codebase. Having to relying on someone else to make your idea happen usually doesn't turn out well. Rocketmud and Teensymud are both written in Ruby which is much easier to learn than your average language (in my opinion). If you are interested in learning Ruby you should come and join us at http://www.rubylearning.org and sign up for a *free* course in core Ruby. Satish Talim runs the site and has extensive experience in several languages. The assistant teachers, myself included, would be more than happy to help you learn right from the very basics! =)
09 Jan, 2009, Val wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
Sounds promising. I'll check it out, Chris. Thanks. :)
09 Jan, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
No problem Val. Finding someone to code for you is just such a difficult process from what I've heard. The reason I suggested those codebases is that they very few "content" features. Teensymud has more features than the others but it's still pretty barebones, I doub't you would have to rip anything out.
09 Jan, 2009, Orrin wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
I'm going to recommend you take a look at NakedMud. It has very little game content, but it's a long way from barebones and would provide you with a great starting point for your own project. It's actively maintained and updated and there's a mailing list where you can get help if you need it.

The core of NakedMud is written in C and uses Python as a scripting language. The scripting support is excellent and you can code almost your entire game in Python if you wish. If you're new to coding then Python is a great place to start.
10 Jan, 2009, Sandi wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
I'll step it up and suggest TinyMUX2.

MUX 2.7

Written in C++, it's designed so you never have to touch the hard code. Everything can be done within the game. Sort of OLC for coders. The only drawback is you have to learn 'mushcode'. Still, it was meant for literate newbies, not IT students, so despite the complaints of "real" coders, it's not that hard to learn.

It's very bare bones - you start with one room and a god. But, there is lots of code available to be installed, even entire space systems (coordinate based, like "wilderness") and full support for White Wolf WoD games, including the magical alternate realities. In mudding, if you have a code question, you post it here (or another forum). In mushing, you can log on to one of several "talkers" run by the Devs and ask questions, MAKE code work, not just post examples, and get real-time help (these talkers average about 40 people on, so there's usually someone awake). There are also forums and mail lists for support. We even have a section here.


I agree with Chris on partnering. While it might be possible to find a coder looking for a Head Builder, most of us that can, do, and started long ago. If you can do both yourself then you're really in control. Else, you're really at the mercy of others, and that's a tough place to be for the length of time it takes to make a MUD.
10 Jan, 2009, Tyche wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
Sandi said:
I'll step it up and suggest TinyMUX2.

MUX 2.7


I hadn't looked at Mush servers for ages. I downloaded the new MUX about a month ago and was very impressed with the level of work done internally and features.
It's just a shame that the only user language supported is cryptic and archaic. If someone embedded lua, scheme, ruby, python or some other more widely used
and "regular" (sane?) language, I think everyone would be running MUX.
10 Jan, 2009, Cratylus wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
Quote
I already have an idea in mind for a MUD with a unique storyline, medieval-fantasy-ish, but also with roots in realism and science.


The Dead Souls codebase accommodates both settings. It
has available both swords and rifles, both spells and stargates.


Quote
The problem is that I have absolutely no idea how to code and trying to learn is proving quite difficult, especially with there being so much jargon to understand.


Things worth doing are often hard to do.


Quote
It would be cool if someone would like to join as a staff member in helping me set up and code such a MUD, and could be involved in the storyline as well if they wanted, as some elements, one race in particular would need to be played by staff to facilitate the roleplay of regular players, at some point.


The reason people are suggesting codebases to you is that
it is very very hard to get a competent coder to show up
and just do what you want. This is hard becase a normal person
will already be using her talents on a mud of her own, and
not especially inclined to make a mud for some newcomer.


Quote
I'm not looking for a /really/ complex MUD, but actual items, an economy, a turn-based combat system, emote-style roleplay and a pleasant-looking output would all be required to provide a good setting for what would be a roleplay enforced or encouraged MUD.


Sounds like Dead Souls would do just fine, pretty much
out-of-the-box. Could you clarify what you mean by
turn based combat?


Quote
I'm not interested in hack and slash games or anything remotely like them, but the storybook type games where player-characters have skills and stats that affect how well they can fight, etc, without actually restricting them too much and strangling plots.


Dead Souls.


Quote
I figure this is probably a long shot, but let me know if you're interested or even if you have any advice you want to offer.


Nope, not interested, but you should probably look into
Do-It-Yourselfing, as other posts in this thread have suggested.

Quote
Currently I don't have a chosen codebase (would probably have to rip the guts out of most of the ones already out there, to make them how I wanted, anyway,) so I don't have a game to log in to yet.


I think it's a little premature to assume you'd have
to rip any part out of anything, if you haven't examined
your options yet. Whatever codebase you choose, I
suggest not ripping out anything unless absolutely necessary.
Just avoid using what you don't need.

-Crat
http://dead-souls.net/articles/why_ds.ht...
10 Jan, 2009, Fizban wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
Cratylus said:
I think it's a little premature to assume you'd have
to rip any part out of anything, if you haven't examined
your options yet. Whatever codebase you choose, I
suggest not ripping out anything unless absolutely necessary.
Just avoid using what you don't need.

-Crat
http://dead-souls.net/articles/why_ds.ht...


Stressing that simply because I've seen the opposite done far too frequently. A certain owner of several tbaMUD based MUDs I know has repeatedly used tbaMUD to create a MUSH-like environment. MUSHes typically have no mobs. If I was going to use tbaMUD and wanted no mobs I'd just remove zone resets and delete the existing mobs. What he instead did was break the codebase nearly beyond repair by trying to remove the ability to create mobs and making them no longer even exist in the codebase. In the end he'd have been far better off not trying to remove the ability to make them and just not having there be any in the zones he was using.
13 Jan, 2009, Val wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Thanks all for your advice/comments.

Question for Cratylus.

Do you advise downloading the stable version of the dead souls codebase, or the new alpha version?

By turn-based combat, I meant as opposed to typing the initial attack command and then the MUD just letting the battle run its course. In other words, there would be pauses between moves to allow the player-character/s to emote and/or choose their next move.
15 Jan, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
Of course now anybody and their mother can run a mud without any programming knowledge whatsoever. All you need to do is go to http://www.mudmaker.com and make your mud using the web based OLC.

It's pretty nifty, but it does cost 15 bucks a month to run a 2000 room mud or something like that. If you're willing to spend the money to have a mud you can change just by clicking a few buttons then this is by all means the way for you to go.

I can't speak to the quality of the server it's on or anything because I'm not willing to pay for it but I can say the web OLC is pretty spiffy. Even the highly experienced coders here should at least check out the free trial of this site.
15 Jan, 2009, Lobotomy wrote in the 12th comment:
Votes: 0
Igabod said:
If you're willing to spend the money to have a mud you can change just by clicking a few buttons then this is by all means the way for you to go.

On a related note, I've been toying around with the idea in my head of trying to see if I could create a GUI-based Mud codebase (after I finish my current project) that would allow for programmer-knowledge-optional game creation. Sort of an IDE kind of thing, but for mud servers explicitly. It seems like it'd be something that wouldn't be too difficult to do, really.

Anyone else here ever consider that sort of thing, and/or does one already exist? :thinking:
15 Jan, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
GUI as in graphical user interface? if so then yeah I've thought of it often but am not skilled enough to do it myself. That would be one HUGE project.
15 Jan, 2009, Chris Bailey wrote in the 14th comment:
Votes: 0
Lobotomy - I've been toying with it on the side using FXRuby.
15 Jan, 2009, Fizban wrote in the 15th comment:
Votes: 0
Igabod said:
GUI as in graphical user interface? if so then yeah I've thought of it often but am not skilled enough to do it myself. That would be one HUGE project.


I know of nothing else GUI might stand for ;) I would say though it'd be a somewhat large project, but not overly immense really.
15 Jan, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 16th comment:
Votes: 0
I started writing a Java GUI map editor for a wilderness type of thing, but didn't get that far with it because the underlying codebase was fluctuating far too quickly. GUI code is the kind of stuff that isn't hard per se, it's just very tedious in my experience. Having to write yet another button handler to do yet another small thing gets old quickly. It's more interesting if you're writing code to actually display fancy stuff. In my case, the tile editor was kind of fun because it had a level-of-detail type thing that let you see the world from a zoomed-out perspective, where it would take tile averages to display the higher-level tiles.

The importance of a GUI editor is fairly proportional to the level of detail your world supports, though. If room sizes matter, for example, seeing them laid out on a map would be helpful. If cartesian layout is important, it would be very nice to see things on a grid of some kind. I'm not sure what all you need, though – for instance, I'm not hugely convinced that writing an IDE would be worth it.

Keep in mind that a tool's usefulness is directly proportional to its intimate knowledge of and ability to manipulate the underlying knowledge. That means that it has to be very specific, or at the least, extremely modular with a whole module written for a codebase you want to play with. I think that's why there haven't been that many undertakings of this sort: as soon as you start changing your MUD code even slightly, the editor no longer works well, if it still works at all. (For example, if you change your flags, or add/remove them, all kind of trouble crops up.)
16 Jan, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 17th comment:
Votes: 0
Fizban said:
Igabod said:
GUI as in graphical user interface? if so then yeah I've thought of it often but am not skilled enough to do it myself. That would be one HUGE project.


I know of nothing else GUI might stand for ;) I would say though it'd be a somewhat large project, but not overly immense really.


I was only trying to make sure, in the programming world there's a LOT of acronyms and I can hardly be expected to know ALL of them. So I verified that what I thought it meant was true. As for the size of it, I was speaking comparatively to what I've done in the past. That would be a gargantuan project for me.
0.0/17